Two tries in the last nine minutes has helped Penrith arrest a worrying late-season losing streak as it overcame North Queensland 24-16 at CUA Stadium on Friday night.
The Panthers trailed 16-10 after 70 minutes when hooker Kevin Kingston brought them level before winger Michael Gordon capped a sensational solo performance with the match-winner five minutes from time.
Gordon, who on Monday re-signed with the club for a further two years, took advantage of a tiring Cowboys defence to scoot out of dummy-half before racing 50 metres to score under the posts and send the home crowd of 7080 into raptures.
The Blues winger, known as Flash, had a brilliant night for Penrith, scoring twice and booting four goals for a personal tally of 16 points.
After three straight losses, the Panthers' finals hopes had been placed in jeopardy but the win has them back on track for a spot in the top four.
But the Panthers could not have had a poorer start to the match after receiving the ball from the kick off only to knock on after just 30 seconds.
It gave the visitors perfect early field positions and after forcing a repeat set, it was almost inevitable they would open the scoring and they did so in the fourth minute through young winger Will Tupou.
It was no surprise that skipper Johnathan Thurston was involved, giving a lovely pass to Bowen who layed off an equally impressive cutout pass for Tupou to barge over out wide.
Thurston potted the sideline conversion for a 6-0 lead.
It didn't take too long for the home side to hit back with an almost identical try.
Deep on the attack the Panthers decided to use their backline with the returning Luke Lewis floating a superb cutout pass to winger Gordon for an easy passage to the line. Gordon converted his own try - bouncing through off the posts - to tie the scores at 6-6.
The Cowboys were soon back in front as Thurston put Willie Tonga over from close range to give Neil Henry's side a six point advantage.
But the match had another momentum swing - and its first moment of controversy - 13 minutes before half-time.
With the Cowboys in possession just metres out from their own line, referee Tony De Las Heras stopped to penalise Thurston for dissent after the No.7 argued his team should have been granted advantage from an earlier knock-on.
The Cowboys skipper was not placed on report but may come under some scrutiny after being involved in a similar incident with referee Jason Robinson when he unleashed a 30 second rant in a match against Manly in May.
The Panthers were given possession in a great attacking position and they made it count with Brad Tighe scoring in the corner just a couple of plays later. Gordon's conversion attempt sailed just wide keeping the Cowboys in front 12-10.
It was a lead they increased before half-time, winger Ash Graham plucking a perfectly placed Bowen kick out of their air to grab a try and give the visitors a 16-10 advantage at the break.
The second-half started much like the first with North Queensland making most of the running and keeping the home side in their own defensive zone.
At one stage the Cowboys had four successive sets on the Panthers line but the home side's defence held firm to keep